MC Madness
by Inverted2wiceOver
Summary: The onset of strange dreams has been troubling Yuuto as of late. Explosions, purple eyes, and a diamond sword is all he can remember. Someone's been watching him, however. Getting back to the real world will require strength, wits, and ingenuity. Looks like he'll have some trouble with that. Mob Talker is present in this story


A shriek resonated from within the burning building. The house, weak in its compromised and dilapidated state, was shaking and falling apart from the unfriendly heat. Crumbling at its foundations, it had become a flaming house of cards.

Despite that, Yuuto sprinted into the chaos. It didn't matter at this point what occurred to him. He just needed to rescue her at any cost. So he ran, dodging the rubble and choking to death from the noxious flames that surrounded him. The inside of the fires were a cruel and harsh environment that yielded only destruction upon his body. He knew he couldn't make it out. Could he save her though?

Just when he was about to collapse in exhaustion and oxygen deprivation, he caught a glimpse of her. Curled up in a ball and nestled in the center of the room, she crouched low to the ground in fear and pain as the room created a living hell. The walls crackled and snapped as they burned and crumbled into piles of rubble. However, the floor was causing the most trouble. Its flames formed a circle that was surrounding her and was slowly decreasing in size for every second that passed.

Now, as Yuuto analyzed the situation, he knew that there was only one way out of this. It might be a long shot, and nothing was certain except for the fact that he would die. That wasn't saying much, though. He was dead from the moment he set foot in this deathtrap.

Diving into action, he gazed into her young, purple eyes and held the small girl in the tightest hug he could, as to make sure she could never escape his embrace. By doing this, he was ensuring his own death but stalling hers. That was his only wish.

Knowing that there was only time for last words, he whispered into her ear, "I love you," and as soon as the words left his mouth, the flames engulfed him. Although he could feel the heat and hear the fire char his flesh, he didn't feel the pain. It was probably so great that it was overloading his senses.

As he started to black out, he thought about how she would grow up to be a wonderful woman. He wanted her to grow up to be old and live happily with someone else. That wouldn't happen if no one would save her though. No one had come to save them.

In his state of semi-consciousness, however, he could finally hear the bells of the fire fighters ringing in his ears. It was kind of funny. The bells sounded like his alarm clock back at home. And with this last though, he faded out of this world, tears running down his cheek for the girl he held ever so tightly with his embrace.

With his ringing alarm clock, Yuuto woke from another vivid dream. With watery eyes and sweat drenched clothes, it hadn't been a very pleasant waking experience.

"What the heck?" He mumbled from his post-sleep daze while turning off his alarm. This dream had seemed too lifelike and real to be simply a dream. But it was. The weirdest part was that it wasn't an isolated phenomenon. This ailment had fallen upon him three days ago, which caused him to lose his baseball game and almost receive a C on his latest test. The only common connection was that he could remember only a certain part of the dream. Last night was a massive explosion. Tonight were the girl's deep purple eyes.

It had spared him this time, however. It woke him up right when he needed to wake up, so it had caused no harm.

He turned on his bedside lamp and stood up. His room was mostly barren save for his crammed bookshelf and the various papers that lay strewn all over his desk. The morning sunshine was barely starting to creep into his room, meaning that he should stop reminiscing over his everyday surroundings and start to get ready for school.

After taking a quick shower, he put on his classic everyday outfit consisting of a generic plain gray t-shirt and a pair of random jeans from his very unvarying wardrobe. He didn't really care for appearances as long as it fit him comfortably and didn't make him look absolutely stupid.

He looked at himself in the mirror. Standing at only 5'7", he was unusually short for sophomore year of high school. His brown hair laid flat upon his head, and his smooth black glasses framed his gray eyes somewhat well. Besides those features, however, nothing else was worth mentioning save his somewhat stocky build and Filipino descent.

Only now did he realize that he had been staring at himself for the past minute. He broke out of his trance. Why had he suddenly taken an interest in such ordinary details? Maybe his dreams were starting to affect him.

Yuuto strolled with his red, bulky backpack into the kitchen where a delicious odor was awaiting him. His mom, donned with a red apron, was making chocolate waffles with whipped cream and strawberries. If Yuuto was a short person, his mom must've been tiny as a child, as she stood three inches shorter than him at the present. Other than that, though, he was very similar to her. She had blond hair and grey eyes. No shortsightedness, however. That came from his dad.

Why was she making chocolate waffles, though? She only made those for special occasions, like Christmas or birthdays. It wasn't anybody's birthday, or so he hoped, and he wouldn't be up this early if it was Christmas. What was special about today?

"Good morning," Yuuto casually saluted. He might as well ask about it. "Is there any special occasion today or are you just making chocolate waffles on a whim?"

His mother tilted her head in curiosity. "You don't know what today is?"

Yuuto widened his eyes with dread. He had forgotten a special occasion again. Despite his above-average intellect, he was always somewhat scatterbrained and easily distracted.

Nevertheless, he replied cautiously, "No…" How was he going to get out of this situation without an awkward speech? Sneaking out wasn't an option, as she was his ride to school. He couldn't divert the topic either, since he introduced in the first place. A thousand thoughts shot through his mind all at once.

Luckily, the dilemma diffused with his mother's intervention. "Today's your school assembly. You're going to receive an award there, aren't you?"

"Ah," he sighed uninterestedly. He had forgotten. With his extraordinary grades inside the classroom and his phenomenal performance on the baseball field, the school officials had voted him "Top Student-Athlete of 2013." It was considered one of the best honors of Jac Connors High School, since it was renowned for its exemplary sports programs and competitive academic course.

To be honest, he didn't really care that much. It was just a trophy that could help him win a scholarship to college. He was still grateful that he got it though, as it meant that he had done an excellent job for himself.

"Thanks for reminding me, Mom." He replied as he dug into his breakfast. The waffles were soft and warm with the sweet accompaniment of the melted chocolate chips and maple syrup. It was truly delicious.

Yuuto's mother took off her apron before washing her hands. "It's supposed to be a big award. Too bad I can't go because of your sisters." His sisters, 9 and 5 years old, had the day off today, so they were sleeping peacefully in their rooms.

"It's not too big of a deal," Yuuto finished the last of his waffles before he jumped out of his chair, scooped up his backpack, and walked to their car. "You're driving me to school, right?"

"Indeed," his mom took the keys to the car before she sat in the driver's seat and started to drive through the town of Aleia.

Aleia was a relatively average town. He had only moved here last year, but he seemed to know the general whereabouts of the town. It was mostly a residential city, but the downtown section sported a diverse variety of shops and restaurants. He loved to just walk around if he had time to idle.

After traveling the usual route, recognizing its familiar lefts, rights, and numerous Starbucks cafes, his school came into view. Jac Connor High was one of the most beautiful schools in Southern California. The gates were decorated with flowers, the classrooms were spacious and technologically advanced, and the athletic fields were maintained in pristine condition. Considering the school's prodigious reputation, however, there was no surprise that they had a very large budget for maintenance and education.

Yuuto gazed at the baseball field in particular. Having played there for two years, he had pitched in many games and won almost as many. He relished the control of the game and the strikeouts against the batters he faced. Adrenaline created a very satisfying feeling. The best part about it was, unless a random act of God said otherwise, he still had two more years to play.

Rolling up to the school's fancy entrance, he kissed his mom on the cheek, exchanged "See you laters", and got out of the car. Facing the gates, he joined the large crowd of students who walked, biked, skated, or got to school through other modes of transportation.

Casually walking with the crowd, he decided to compile a mental checklist.

_Today my classes are Biology, History, and English. No homework for Biology, as always. The History handout was pretty easy, and the English essay isn't due today. At least, I hope._ _Along with that, the assembly today is supposed to be pretty big. It's after fourth period right? There shouldn't be too much stress today, considering the easygoing schedule._

In his mental recap, he had managed to overshoot his locker and was now facing his school's library. That was a pretty impressive feat, considering the fact that his locker was over 150 yards away. It seemed the crowd took him a long ways off his destination. Turning away, he diverged off the path and backtracked to locker 1729.

Upon approaching his undecorated locker, Yuuto entered his combination and opened it, retrieving his English textbook. He then attempted to travel to his friends' hangout spot under the large oak tree, but the bell had other ideas. Ringing its four-tone bell, the school day officially started.

_Oh well,_ Yuuto though. _I'll just meet them in Mrs. Smith's room_.

His literature teacher, Mrs. Smith, was a little weird. Her appearance wasn't extraordinary. Describing her would be like describing a generic American woman. Her mental state, however, was one of the most discussed topics in school. Her belief in the supernatural worried her students and her fellow teachers. In her speeches, she always found a way to weave her lessons with some new statements of dragons, symbolism, and time travel. Granted, her classes always yielded the highest test scores of any class in the school, so her teaching methods were effective. How did she do it?

His stream of consciousness was interrupted by his arrival at the classroom. Equipped with numerous laptops, filled bookcases, and windows as wide as the wall, it was a setting that most schools could only dream of. These rooms had been paid off, in part, by the actions of the incredible minds and athletes at the school. The scientists and players that had been educated here gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the school to harbor the next Albert Einstein or the next Michael Phelps.

Idly standing at their desks, his friends were chatting about some arbitrary video game. Be it a First Person Shooter, a sandbox program, or a racing game, his friends were eager to discuss every aspect about it. That's why Yuuto liked them; they held a lot in common with them. His first friend at this school was actually Rene, the core of the group. His upbeat personality and short stature created a magnetic personality that one would find hard to resist.

Upon acquiring a line of sight with Yuuto, he immediately shouted a greeting.

"Hey, Yuuto!" Rene waved from across the room. His blue eyes and blond hair seemed to be glowing from the absolute enthusiasm contained with him.

"How are you," Yuuto replied casually. He was one of the more serious people in the group. "You still trying to install the Adventure Time mod on your Minecraft server?"

Rene grinned. "Already got that. The server should be up and running by sometime this afternoon. You want the I.P. address?"

Yuuto nodded. "Can you write it down for me?"

"Sure." Taking out his pen, he opened his mouth to say more. However, the "Start Class" bell interrupted him mid-reply.

He shrugged. "I'll just give it you after class."

They exchanged farewells before retiring to their seats.

Mrs. Smith walked in right after the bell. She seemed to have taken interest in yet another book. A certainty with her was that she absolutely loved literature. Once, she had asked if the class could recommend books for her to read. It turned out, however, that she had already read all of the recommendations. Many people were surprised that she never ran out of books to read.

After the flag salute and the morning announcements, she stood up and cleared her throat. "Today, using the laptops that we have on hand, we'll be continuing the fictional narratives that we've been working on for the past week." This elicited joy from her students. "Please retrieve your specified laptop from the computer. The goal today is to reach the eleventh page and/or reach your fourth location. Have fun with your work!"

Everyone loved the laptops, but for different reasons. Yuuto personally liked to read and write. The only reason he didn't do it more often was because he was slightly lazy. He preferred Internet videos and video games. A fictional narrative wasn't too bad, however, as it let him release the wild expanses of imagination that roamed free in his head.

Obtaining his laptop, he eagerly opened the screen and pressed the on button. The screen turned on instantaneously, which was weird. Upon closer inspection, he found out why. Since the laptops were constantly charged, only the first period of the day needed to turn them on. However, a person in sixth period must've left the computer on. Along with that, the suspect must've been an avid gamer, as the open window was a paused Minecraft game. He could tell the game was Minecraft without reading the title, as the game consisted solely of pixelated blocks. The game was famous for its minimalistic sandbox style of building only with blocks. However, the player stood in a blank grass field and had absolutely nothing in his inventory. Absolutely no trees were cut down and the terrain around the avatar hadn't been touched.

Yuuto shook his head in disapproval. _Whoever did this must've rushed in order to avoid detection._ He clicked the red X on the top-right corner. The game, apparently very stubborn, decided to freeze and act unresponsive.

_Oh, come on._ These laptops were not friendly to games. He decided to wait it out, but after an entire minute of spamming the "Close" button, he grew weary of it.

With a quick "_I'll just worry about it later",_ he gave up in frustration and opened his personal Word document. Placing his ear buds in his ears and letting his rock music play, he got to work.

Yuuto enjoyed letting his brain relax and pouring out his quirkiness into the mini novel. The story, which wasn't very serious, followed the lives of a fifteen year old human robot and his eight year old professor. The tale didn't have a very definite conflict or story arc. Mainly, comedy would take over and provide short little skits that increased in ridiculousness until the situation hilariously diffused in the climax and the chapter's setting was swept under the rug.

While he was enjoying the creation of the complete randomness upon the pages, he couldn't help but think about that dang frozen game. It hadn't closed yet, despite his constant attempts, and it was starting to get on his nerves. His slight OCD made sure that he couldn't help but notice the small discrepancies in everything, and this especially was killing him.

Even though he had reached the fifteenth page, he knew that he couldn't work with this constant annoyance. He brought the game up again just to try to close it, but the scene had changed. The game, which used to show an empty field, now portrayed another avatar in the field. The blocky figure's skin consisted of a torn cyan shirt and purple pants, which was the default skin. The only difference was the eyes. Instead of the classic purple eyes, the avatar sported pure white eyes. This wasn't very scary, as he had seen it before. A classic myth spread in Minecraft communities about the legendary Herobrine. Appearing on a random forum as a nonsensical horror story, the meme had propagated through the players and had become an icon upon gamer circles. The creators even played along, adding "Removed Herobrine" in every update to add to the hype.

In any other instance, Yuuto would be wondering how this could happen. Right now, he was just annoyed. Realizing that the game had unfrozen, and knowing that trying to close it would be a fruitless effort, he looked around to see if anyone was watching. Sitting at the back of the room, it was hard for someone to spy on him. He typed into the chat for fun

Steve: Mind telling me what you're doing on this game?

Why was he doing this? This was a single player world. This figure couldn-

Herobrine: Monitoring you.

Yuuto's eyes widened his eyes in surprise. How did the avatar reply? Was it some complex program like Cleverbot or was some other person trying to trick him? Nevertheless, he played along.

Steve: And exactly how are you monitoring me? Are you creating magical robots to invade my dreams?

Herobrine: You might be laughing now, but this is much more serious than you can comprehend.

This person or program was definitely being very persistent. It was starting to scare him a little.

Steve: If you've actually been monitoring me for a while, then tell me all about me.

The next reply would either relieve his fears or bring them to another level. Which way would it go?

Herobrine: Your name is Yuuto Masuda.

Yuuto almost jumped in his seat. There was no way this was possible.

Herobrine: You live with your parents and two younger sisters. At the school assembly today, you will receive an award for "Top Student-Athlete of 2013". Your favorite color is orange, you're introverted, and you play video games for about four hours a day.

Yuuto's face turned deathly pale. This "thing" knew too much about him to be a coincidence. The program was serious beyond all skepticism. It had acquired all of this information for a reason.

Steve: Please tell me that you have a reason for stalking me. Unless you do this for a hobby, you must have a motive behind this.

A second passed.

Herobrine: We have an issue in this world that is in dire need of resolving. We need someone to take care of it, and you have been personally chosen as the hero. So…

He knew where this was going and he wanted no part in it. He was quick to respond.

Steve: NO! Besides, you're capable of monitoring me from a game. Why don't you do it?

Herobrine: I cannot intervene in matters such as these. I am bound by a pact between the dimensions. We all need you to do this, or this world is doomed.

This was the definition of insanity. A program from the game he loved was asking him to save the digital world of a video game. This had to be a joke. A very, very complex and malevolent joke.

Steve: I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully decline. I can't do this right now.

Yuuto tried to close the game yet again by simply shutting off the computer. It worked, except for the fact that it shut down everything but the game. He was now staring at the figure, as the rest of the screen was completely black. There was nothing he could do now.

Herobrine: I apologize, but the decision is no longer in your hands. You have been chosen for this mission whether you choose to accept it or not.

Steve: And what makes you think that I'll comply with your outrageous demands? I'll choose my own battles.

The screen started to flash brightly over and over again. Its relentless glow was too intense, rendering him unable to close the laptop.

Herobrine: You underestimate my power. Good luck on your journey.

Flaring unstoppably, the light had a sort of dark magic that caused him to freeze in his seat. He suddenly had no control over his body as it lay paralyzed in a corpse-like position. Realizing that what had just occurred was going to inevitably change his life, he began to lose consciousness.

Only now did his classmates notice what was occurring in the back of the room, but at this point it was too late. The light beam had grown so strong and intense that the rest of the room couldn't see the entire back wall. The sunshine from outside had become pitch-black darkness compared to the ball of flashing luminescence that had accumulated in the room.

And just as suddenly as it had arrived, it dissipated. The laptop, still open, had finally shut down, but not without taking its victim.

On March 14, 2014, Yuuto Masuda left the realm known as Earth to fulfill his destiny in the world of MC.


End file.
